Sun and Shield

Day Two

Rose was exhausted. After Celestia had received that letter, she had demanded the city be put on full lockdown. That meant double shifts and about four hours of rest if you were lucky and could sleep. It also meant that travel in and out of the city was heavily restricted. Which meant that more guards were needed at more places throughout the city to maintain that integrity.

On the sleep front, Rose was one of the unlucky ones who couldn’t even catch any. She had stayed up most of the short night, worried about that letter she had seen Princess Celestia receive. What did it mean? Obviously it was about Princess Twilight, but what was wrong with her? Was it something that the royals had known about previously or was this something new? Both possibilities were equally terrifying in her mind.

Now here they, Lieutenant Golden Star and his same detachment of ponies from yesterday, were. They had switched from the gate in the north of the city, to the south. They were joined by yet another detachment of guards so they could hold the more trafficked path into the city.

“When was the last time we were on lockdown for this long?” Picket was still by her side, as always. He looked far more rested than her, and she would hazard a guess that he had snuck off at some point and caught up on lost sleep. “Tirek, I think?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Rose yawned and leaned against the city wall. “There was some stuff in Ponyville, I remember hearing about it. Never reached Canterlot, though.” She thought on it for a moment. “Oh and that one thing somewhere in the mountains with the cult.” Rose shrugged, the armor resting on her body shifting and jangling with the movement. “Princess Twilight and her friends will handle it. I don’t think we have to worry about it too much.” She didn’t even quite believe that at the moment, not with what she had seen in the throne room yesterday. If something was wrong with Twilight, then it would be up to her friends to figure it out. Did she still have that same level of faith in the Elements of Harmony sans the Element of Magic?

“I wish they’d hurry up with it, though.” Picket grumbled and cast his eyes towards the gate, where Lieutenant Golden had stopped somepony and was checking their papers. “Usually they’re a little quicker than this. A full day? I think they’re losing their touch.”

“Alright fillies and colts, gather round!” An older unicorn stallion announced as he approached the group of guards. Almost everypony recognized him as one of the Royal Armorers, more specifically the enchanter of the bunch. “We’re re-doing the enchantments on your armor on the fly, so get in line! We may be in a lockdown but that doesn’t mean you can go around out of uniform!”

So everypony that wasn’t immediately on lookout duty or specifically guarding checkpoints around the gate lined up. Rose and Picket were at the front of the bunch for once, lending to the fact that they had just rotated out of their active duties. So they were just a few ponies back from getting their spells refreshed, which was good. She didn’t need to see any of her coworkers with their natural coat color under their armor. That would be weird.

Soon enough, both Picket and herself had their uniform charms renewed, ensuring they would keep the look of stock guards for a little while longer. It didn’t take very long, thankfully. The elder unicorn simply grabbed the gem on her chest without removing it and did something to it with his magic.

“We got some panicked civvies incoming!” One of the pegasus lookouts called out from above. “They look hurt!” That got everypony’s attention quickly and the line to the enchanter broke up in an instant. “Three, coming in quick!”

“Open the gate!” The Lieutenant barked.

The drawbridge lowered first with a thundering boom as it hit the ground on the other side, then the wrought iron gate was slowly cranked up by the two earth ponies manning it. The civilians were visible as they ran up the hill towards the gate, three of them, all earth ponies.

A brown stallion wearing a green tie led the charge, his hooves stained with crimson and a wild look in his eyes. Two mares were behind him, one cream colored with a two tone red mane while the other was pink with a darker pink mane. They all looked harried and exhausted as they approached.

“We got wounded!” Golden shouted again. Two ponies rushed forward from the gaggle of guards that were converging around the gate, both of them with red hearts on their armor. “Come in, come in!” He waved the trio of ponies inside. “Are there any more?” He received a shake of the head from the brown stallion. “Close the gate!”

Rose pushed forward through the crowd to get a better view of the newcomers. The stallion’s front two hooves were caked in blood, most likely owed to the deep looking bite marks that were on both of his front legs. The mares didn’t look much better: the pink one had a blistering burn that covered most of her face, the cream colored one was missing a piece of one of her ears and had similar bite marks to the stallion on her flank.

“G-get away from me!” The cream colored mare kicked at one of the medics, a unicorn named Suture, as he tried to get closer to look at her wounds. “No unicorns! No unicorns! No unicorns!” Panicked yet serious demands.

“Hey, it’s okay Roseluck.” The stallion of the group approached her. “We’re safe. We’re safe.” That did nothing to assuage the mare, who once again pulled away from the unicorn medic. “I-I’m sorry about this, really.” He had an accent, Trottingham if she had to guess or somewhere over there.

“Go fetch a non-unicorn medic.” Lieutenant Golden Star put a hoof on Suture’s back and sent him away. “We’ll take care of you and get you patched up, but we need you to tell us what happened out there.”

“M-my filly!” The pink mare suddenly burst into a sobbing fit, tears running from the one eye of hers that was still open and down the burned skin that covered her face. “I-I-I-” She didn’t even finish another word as she devolved into a blubbering mess.

“Monsters.” The stallion said. “I-I’ve never seen anything like that. Ponies just started turning into monsters and attacking everything…” A shock of murmurs went through the assembled guards. “We made a break for it last night…I don’t know how we made it.”

“They turned into monsters?” Golden asked. “How?” Then his eyes fell to the bite marks on the two ponies. He backed up from the trio slowly, then waved a nearby unicorn guard over to him. “Quarantine spell, now.” That was all it took for a golden bubble to me raised around the new ponies. That did nothing but make them panic. “I’m sorry, but we can’t risk whatever that is spreading.” He spoke calmly, but everypony could see that facade faltering a little. “You’re from Ponyville?” He received a solemn nod from the stallion now in the bubble. “…Corporal Rose!”

“Yes sir?” She stepped forward out of instinct and stood ramrod straight.

“Go to the castle-” He approached her slowly and spoke quietly. “-do not find Galea, go straight to the Princesses. I want you to tell them we have a possible contagion outbreak. I do not know of what. You heard what these ponies said, report it. Do not embellish. Do not exaggerate.” He leaned down a little to look her in the eyes. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Lieutenant.”

“You’re an honest pony, Corporal Rose.” Golden rested a hoof on her shoulder to keep her from flying off for a moment longer. He spoke lowly, just loud enough for her to hear him. “I’m trusting you with this task because of that fact. You are a good pony and a good guard. Do not make me look like a fool.” He stood back up. “Dismissed.”

Rose thought on that as she flew back to the castle. She had always assumed the Lieutenant hated her, not that she knew why he would. Run of the mill sexism was the obvious answer, the Royal Guard was a pretty big stallion’s club. Maybe one day, when one of them retired, she’d be able to ask him why exactly he had been so tough on her if he thought highly of her character.

She had done her best in her career to simply do her job and not much else. There were nobles that joined to hunt for glory, there were others who did it because they had nothing else going for them and sought cushy assignments, there were those who liked the small bit of power it gave them. She was none of those. She was a patriot who wanted to keep the Princesses safe and wanted nothing more than to serve. Whatever was asked of her in service of the crown, she would do it.

The process of getting into the castle was the same as last time. Initial duplication check just outside, checking with Pusher and telling him where she needed to go, then another security check before going into the throne room.

She would never tire of entering the throne room. The simple majesty of it took her breath away every time. There was just something ethereal about it all, and the two goddesses sitting on the thrones at the very end of the room enhanced that feeling. Rose had to keep her eyes focused ahead and keep her head on straight in here. There was no time to get distracted with the wonderful room that surrounded her

The night and day made flesh and blood sat on their thrones high above the world and were conversing with one another. Whatever they were saying faded into the air far before it would ever reach Rose’s ears, but it looked to be serious. Both of the alicorns were frowning with furrowed brows as they spoke. Princess Luna looked exhausted too, dark bags hung from below her eyes and she was hunched over in her throne. It was a stark contrast to the bright figure that her sister cut in front of the sun motif that decorated her throne.

“Your Majesties.” Rose spoke loud enough for the two royals to hear and bowed before them. “I have urgent news from the north gate.”

“Rise, my little pony.” Celestia’s angelic voice commanded, and Rose obeyed. “What news?”

“Civilians from Ponyville, Your Majesty.” That earned a surprised murmur from the assembled guards and castle staff. “Three of them, all of them badly injured. They were panicked and told stories of ponies turning into monsters and attacking others.” That earned a shocked gasp from everypony, including Princess Luna. Celestia slowly took to her hooves and looked down at Rose intently. “Lieutenant Golden Star wants to inform you it’s a possible outbreak. He’s not sure of what, but the bite marks on the survivors have him worried.”

“Are you sure about this?” Celestia descended from her throne and approached the guardsmare. “That’s what he said?”

Suddenly, Rose felt like she couldn’t speak. Princess Celestia was less than a foot in front of her and words failed her. The aura of warmth that radiated from the alicorn enveloped Rose again and shut her brain off. It made her want to lay her head against the Princess’ chest and doze off. It felt like a lazy summer afternoon.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Her sense of duty powered through the sensations that kept trying to overwhelm her. “He didn’t explicitly state it was the bites that worried him, but I intuited that from his actions.” Was assuming something a lie? There was no way to know what the Lieutenant thought about that, but she was going to just assume that he didn’t. “He has the three ponies quarantined now.”

“Sister.” Princess Luna approached Celestia from behind and put a hoof on her elder sibling’s back. “With what we already know, I think it is time for the emergency order we discussed.”

“Mmm.” Celestia turned her head towards the ceiling and closed her eyes. The sunlight streamed through the multicolored windows and bathed her in colors that only enhanced the ethereal nature of her visage. “Perhaps. I just…wish we could give Twilight a little more time.”

“Tia…” Princess Luna gripped Celestia’s leg tightly. Her eyes pleaded with the other alicorn silently, but when Celestia refused to meet them Luna spoke again. “...we have not heard any word from Ponyville since yesterday. We must assume-”

“We must assume nothing, Luna.” The warmth that cascaded from Celestia’s presence turned blazing hot for a moment. It was enough to cause Rose to stumble backwards from the sudden change. “When have they failed us before? They have earned every benefit of the doubt. We must let them have more time.”

“We do not even know what the problem is!” The throne room fell to silence as Luna shouted at Celestia. “We must act before it is too late to do so, Celestia. What if your pupil needs our assistance and cannot reach us to ask for it?” Celestia did not respond, nor did she look at her younger sister. “If you refuse to do anything, then I will!”

Princess Luna was the opposite of Princess Celestia in many ways, chief among them being her lack of composure. There were not many public appearances with the younger alicorn, and it was clear there was a reason why. While ponies would often flock to Celestia to even be near her, they would also avoid Luna when they could. Rose could see why that was now. A temper like that was unbecoming of a Princess.

“Luna, no.” Celestia put her hoof down, both metaphorically and literally. Her gilded hoof hit the tile and stopped her younger sister in her tracks. “I’ll…I’ll put out the order, but we must give them more time. It is important that they’re tested.”

“The test must be survived to be of any value, dear sister…”

Day Three

“Citizens of Equestria, we are in the middle of an unknown and ever unfolding crisis. It’s imperative that you remain in your homes and out of contact with those not in your immediate family. Food will be delivered, you will be taken care of. Stay safe, my little ponies.”

Celestia’s voice belted out the same messages from speakers all over Canterlot and was repeated on all publicly owned radio stations. Like with most things Celestia said, the ponies listened and obeyed.

Rose and Picket walked through the city, the sound of theirs and countless other armored hooves against pavement echoed across the dead capital. It felt eerie and wrong. At least with most other disasters, there was chaos in the street with how sudden they came on. Now though? Utter silence and calm.

“I think this is scarier than the Changelings.” Rose muttered to her persistent partner. “At least we knew what that was. It was instant and we could fight back against something.” Her skin crawled at the thought of the chitinous creatures and their failed invasion. She couldn’t even look at them even after their ‘change’.

“You’d really rather be fighting for your life against those bugs?” Picket shook his head. “No way, nuh-uh. I remember having that green gunk covering me and how bad their teeth hurt when they got ahold of you. No thank you.” The unicorn’s hoof connected with a rock and sent it clattering down the cobblestone in front of them. “Weren’t you in the castle that day? How could you even want that again?”

“It was better than this.” She motioned towards the buildings that all had their curtains drawn and the empty streets. “We could actually take action rather than wait. Even better, we knew what we were fighting. See the bug, fight the bug.” Rose nodded. “Now we’re just…waiting. For what? We don’t even know other than ‘monsters’” They caught up to the rock that Picket had kicked and this time Rose brought her hoof forward and pelted it down the road.

That was one thing she agreed with Princess Luna about, the need to proactive action rather than just being reactive. The princess of the night was riddled with rough edges and was generally unpleasant to be near, but she was right in this case. Sitting back and waiting for monsters to come to the doorstep was a mistake.

Rose looked up towards the sky and closed her eyes as she turned towards the sun. She uttered an apology to the heavenly body and its controller whom she second guessed. Normally there would be no thoughts that went against Celestia going through her mind, but this was one thing she would be adamant on. The Royal Guard was here to keep the crown safe, she just wished Celestia trusted them with that task and would let them do their job a little more aggressively.

“Why do you do that?” Picket’s voice drew her head back down and she turned to him with a raised eyebrow. “The ‘raising your head to the sun’ thing. I’ve seen you do it before. I thought it was just you enjoying the day at first but I dunno now.” Rose tried to ignore the question but Picket jabbed a hoof into her flank. “I’m not going to make fun of you or anything, promise. I’m just curious!”

“My Dad…” Rose started with a sigh. “Well, he grew up in the middle of nowhere. His parents believed that Princess Celestia was divine. Literally. They believed her to be a literal goddess above every pony alive. It’s how he was raised and…y’know, I picked up some of it.”

“Your family are those sun cult ponies?” Picket was suppressing a smirk. “Really?”

“No.” Rose spoke slowly and deliberately, all the while she glared at the shorter stallion. “They lived in the middle of nowhere, they were farmers. When your entire livelihood depends on the sun and you know there’s a pony who controls it, you start to believe some things. They weren’t a part of anything organized. They just…had faith.”

“And you?”

“I…have a deep admiration for Princess Celestia.” Rose had to be careful with her words and she knew that, lest Picket think her even more weird. “I remember the first time I saw the Summer Sun Celebration when it was held in Las Pegasus…” A shiver shot up her spine and she smiled at the memory. “I saw her bracketed with gold…her hooves left the stage and it seemed like she lifted the sky with a thought. Then I understood, I got it.” She couldn’t help herself but to indulge a little, no matter how normal she wanted to look. “I have faith, too. It’s different, but it’s there.”

“Hey, I don’t judge.” Picket threw up a hoof and shrugged. “Even if you are from a family of weird sun cultists.” That earned him a kick in the shoulder. “Ow! What? I said I don’t judge!” He laughed and rubbed the spot on his armor where she had hit. “Oh, c’mon. You dented it! I’m going to get in trouble for this now, you know that right?”

The attention of both guards was captured by the sound of a door opening near them. The sound of a shop’s bell stood out amongst the dead city. A small unicorn filly with a white coat and lavender man poked her head out of the door and looked around outside, then at Rose and Picket.

“Hey little one…” Picket was the first one to engage. He lowered his head and smiled at the filly. “We’re gonna need you to go back inside, okay?”

“Why? Nothing’s happening.” She furrowed her brows and looked up at Picket. She was obviously old enough to have a cutie mark and old enough to be a little skeptical. “Usually the monsters would already be here and gone.”

“Yeah, we know…” Rose said with a sigh.

“Well we can’t control when things happen, but we’re going to keep everypony in the city as safe as we can no matter how long it takes. I promise.” Picket grinned and reached out to pat her on the head. “Tell you what, here.” His horn lit up and he pulled something wrapped in brown paper from inside of his armor. It was slowly unwrapped with magic to reveal a pair of cookies inlaid with colorful chocolate candies. “You’ve been really patient for us and you’ve made our job a lot easier by being so good.”

With a smile and a squeal the filly took the cookies with her own magic and took a bite out of one. She thanked the two guards and waved at them before shutting the door. They waited for a few moments to see if she’d open the door again, but when that didn’t happen they happily went on their way.

“Breach! Breach! We have a breach!” A voice called out through the city. It was distant, but it was there. Both of the guards froze in place as their ears swiveled on top of their heads to locate the source. That wasn’t an easy task given the tight streets that let noises bounce off of the buildings and throw sounds all over the place. “Need help! Please!”

“Go up, I’ll follow you!”

Rose launched herself into the sky and over the rooftops. She had just barely cleared the tops of the buildings around her when she saw a lance of magic shoot into the sky from the direction of the north gate. It was followed up by a second blast that confirmed it was from the city’s north gate. She pointed a hoof in that direction, received a nod from her partner, and they both raced off towards the destination.

Along the way, Rose was joined by other pegasi guards that were all headed in the same direction. They traded questions and what they had heard from their various posts. They learned that it was Lieutenant Mustang in charge of defending the gate today. Nothing should’ve been able to breach them, so what happened?

The gaggle of guards caught sight of the courtyard and all of them froze for a moment. Below them was what could only be described as a massacre. Several bodies lay strewn about the place, all guards save for one. The fallen guards’ armor had all been shredded or penetrated, leaving them to shift back to their natural looks rather than the forced uniformity the armor provided. About three pegasi were flying above the mess already, two of them bleeding and listing heavily to one side.

It was the thing below that caught everypony’s eye, though.

It almost looked like a pony but it wasn’t one, at least not anymore. It stood on four long spindly legs, about double the length of a normal pony’s legs. The blue coat was stretched taught all over its body, bones pressed painfully against skin so hard that you could count the vertebrae on its spine and the ribs in its chest from a distance. Its muzzle was elongated and filled with sharp teeth and crimson dripped freely from the pulled back lips. A long horn with a visibly sharp edge protruded from its wild white and gray mane.

A stream of wild magic erupted from its horn and swept across the sky. It was an attempt to swat them from the sky, and it worked. The beam caught one of the already injured guard’s wings and sent him tumbling down to the ground. His body hit the pavement below with a clatter. The creature descended on him instantly.

Rose was flying directly at the thing as soon as she heard the stallion’s scream. She impacted its side as teeth cut through the guard armor like a knife through butter and sent herself and it tumbling across the ground. She got up a lot faster than it did, and it was long enough for the other guards to react. In a few moments, the creature was swarmed by the pegasi guards that had arrived on the scene. A pile of a dozen bodies all fell on top of it to keep it pinned.

Its jaws snapped audibly and one of the guards cried out in pain as it obviously found purchase. Lances of pure magic flew out from its horn but only hit the building directly behind it, which meant its head was pinned. They had it contained, for now.

Rose looked around at the bodies that surrounded her. It had done all of this. Even if it had caught them off guard, they couldn’t risk trying to just lock it up. The unicorns already lying dead or dying on the ground had to have already tried that. No.

Rose picked up a spear that was on the ground with her mouth then shifted it to her wings.

“Please forgive me…” She looked up at the sun again and closed her eyes for a split second, just enough to send up that message to the heavenly body. “I need an opening!” She called out to the group of guards still holding the thing down. The group of bodies grunted and shifted until she could see a patch of blue on its chest. Her front hooves left the ground and she stood on her back legs. The spear went from her wings to her now unoccupied front hooves.

Bones crunched and a sickening howl went up into the air as the metal tip of the weapon punctured the thing’s chest. Rose grit her teeth and twisted the spear a few times until the monster quit making noise and until all of the blue fur she could see was fully stained red. When there was no doubt that the thing was dead, she pulled the spear out and tossed it aside.

“What in Celestia’s name happened?!” Lieutenant Golden belted out as he came into the courtyard, a full contingent of guards from across the city now behind him. “Where’s Mustang?!”

One of the stallions who had been stationed here and had now peeled himself off of the felled beast pointed a hoof at one of the bodies. Rose followed his hoof briefly and saw a jet black stallion with a hole in his chest and part of his throat missing. She immediately looked away.

Her eyes fell to the ground, then she stumbled backwards and fell to her haunches. The heart in her chest was beating like a drum and she could hear her blood rushing in her ears. Her front hooves left the ground and she looked at them. They were shaking uncontrollably.

“Close the gate.” Golden Star ordered. When no one responded to it, he turned around to the crowd following him. “Did I stutter? CLOSE THE GATE!” That got ponies into gear as several of them scattered to do what was ordered. “Cover the bodies and get somepony out here to take them away.” The bulky officer then stalked over to the monster and poked at it with a hoof. His jaw tightened and he looked around. “Who killed it?”

Rose didn’t even need to lift her head up to feel the hooves pointing at her.

“Corporal, is this true?” The Lieutenant spoke and Rose pulled herself to her hooves and stood at attention without much prodding. She wanted to look at him, but that thing was still behind him and her eyes wouldn’t cooperate. Instead, they stayed focused on the ground.

“Yes sir.” Her voice was shaking and quiet. She cleared her throat and tried that again. “Yes, sir.” False confidence coated her words and she forced herself to speak. “It had already done so much damage by the time I had gotten here. I got it to the ground and the others held it down. I-...” The words caught in her throat. “-I did what I felt I had to sir.”

“Go to the barracks, Corporal.” It wasn’t a hard order. It was more of a suggestion wrapped in a strange level of concern. Their eyes finally met as she lifted her head and met his gaze. “I’ll get the report from the others.”

“With all due respect sir, if there are more of these things out there then we everypony who can hold a spear and fight.” A compulsion to look around overtook her and she looked around at the carnage that surrounded them. “Look at what it took to take one of those things down. If there’s a whole town of them…”

“We’ll be fine for a few hours, Corporal Rose.” A heavy hoof landed on her shoulder. “Go catch some sleep. If you’re needed, you’ll be retrieved.”

She wanted to argue some more, to tell him that it was her duty to protect this city and she had to fulfill it. The fight wasn’t there, though. That rush that had accompanied the initial moments after the kill was fading and the fatigue was setting in. Golden’s hoof felt immense on her shoulder, like it would even collapse her if it stayed there for too long. So, with no other recourse and the come down setting in, she just nodded.

Sleep didn’t seem like such a bad idea, and hopefully Princess Luna could keep the nightmares at bay.

For a little while at least.